When this coalition government wages war on parents, particularly poorer parents, they also wage war on the children growing up in those families...

A study by american psychologists a number of years ago, revealed that 85% of the messages adults give toddlers are negative...  "you can't manage that"..  "you mustn't say that".. "you horrible naughty child".. "do you want a smack?" etc...

A child's brain, in the first 3 years of life, is soaking up information like a sponge.  With very little experience of life to challenge the views of parents and other adults, the child absorbs and internalises messages as absolute fact.  Children are looking at this stage, for the adults in their lives to give them essential information about themselves as little individuals and the world around them.  If mummy says I'm disgusting, then I must be disgusting...

Parents don't mean to be so cruel, but most of us will deliver roughly the same type of parenting we received as little ones.  Traditionally if you came from a middle class family that was likely to be a nurturant form of parenting.. lots of attention and encouragement to develop as an individual.  

If you were born into a working class family you were more likely to receive an authoritarian form of parenting where children are pressurised to conform to the rules around them and are more likely to be controlled with smacking for bad behaviour than offered an explanation for why something is wrong...

Most of the parents I know have made a genuine effort NOT to be like their own parents, and that works fine when life is ticking along happily and everyone in the family is well.  But under stress, parents find themselves suddenly reverting to the old models of parenting they got and they're less likely to be patient and understanding and more likely to lose their temper...

John Bowlby, back in the 50s, offered the insight that if you don't make sure the parents basic needs are met, then they will struggle to meet the needs of their children, which of course makes total sense...

And when this brutally heartless coalition government wages war on parents, particularly poorer parents, they also wage war on the children growing up in those families, which I'm sure they know very well.. and they do it anyway!